A Hobby Lobby thought experiment

Let us imagine a group of religious people with a long history and names hard on the American tongue so for brevity we will call their Deity Bob, their leader The Bob and the adherents The Bobs.

One of the central themes of The Bobs religion is the pursuit of perfection and beauty to honor their God, Bob. The Bobs have never formally been recognized as a religion, have never built as church, yet are deeply religious and live according to their devote beliefs. They come from a region of the world known for fine gem stones and precious metals. The Bobs have quite naturally become widely known for their fine craftsmanship in metallurgy and jewelry, which is how they have supported themselves throughout the centuries.

The Bobs have settled near Canton, Ohio on a pastoral setting. They have incorporated in Delaware with a PO box labeled Bob's Bangles. Bob's Bangles is a world wide conglomerate that is comprised of jewelry outlets, kiosks, stores, gem trading, shrewd purchases of high quality name brand jewelers and a lucrative partnership through their precious metals division with various high tech companies.

The Bobs have cultivated their high quality creations because of their belief that they must make offerings to Bob and only the best should be considered for the honor of being offered to Bob. The greatest offering they can give is their children. To conceive of a beautiful child and then raise it in the best traditions of Bobdom is the highest form of offering to give Bob. Their beliefs include the notion that defective children are an abomination before Bob and their tradition requires children born with birth defects must be killed at birth.

The Bobs live in the modern world and killing live babies is not encouraged in most of the world where they do business or live. So the Bobs have adapted to local laws, coming as close to their ideal as is practical to the world where they have set up shop. In the US this means they don't kill live babies but do encourage abortions of fetuses with verifiable defects where the law allows.

In their belief that perfect children are the greatest way to honor Bob they are heavily invested in prenatal research and care. They do missionary work in some of the poorest areas of the world helping people of many religions to conceive and raise their own versions of perfect offerings. This takes many forms including poverty and education programs, disease prevention, infant care and a whole host of good works given freely and to any who need without conditions.

Bob's Bangles, like Hobby Lobby, object to the federal mandate to provide health insurance which they find violates the basic tenets of their religion and are seeking an exemption. The objectionable mandate in the ACA is that prenatal care must be covered by the insurance and the Bobs feel that prenatal care to any fetus that shows signs of defects violates their religious rights.

Bob's Bangles fully support the concept of prenatal care and in fact are recognized in the field for their contributions both financially and in making it a public cause. They simply cannot be party to, give any support to or condone something their religion considers an abomination before Bob. They wish to set up their own company paid insurance that covers everything in the ACA except for prenatal care of known defective fetuses. They will give a stipend to any employees who wish to purchase insurance separately to cover what Bob's Bangles own insurance does not, while still having complete access to Bob's Bangles insurance free of cost.

If Hobby Lobby wins their case before the Supreme Court and can claim a business religious exemption, can Bob's Bangles also claim and be granted a similar exception? They both have a narrow objection to narrowly defined portions of the law while wishing to comply in all other aspects of the law.